Calabashe processing

It’s hard to enumerate everything made from gourds: mugs, bottles, cups, pitchers, round clothes chests, drums… The inhabitants of the old Dahomey thought that the world itself was made of two halves of an old calabash gourd, the upper half being the sky, and the lower one being the earth and the sea. The place where they meet is where we see the horizon. If you live in Africa, it’s not hard to believe in that.

Calabashes are the fruit of various creeping plants and calabash trees. While growing, they can be shaped in all kinds of ways, by binding them with strings; they can also be left to grow to the size of an enormous ball. When a pumpkin matures, they cut it and wait until the soft part rots –then it’s easier to hollow out. There are other ways: for example, the calabash may be placed near an anthill and they wait for the ants to eat away the soft part. The resulting vessel is light and sturdy, and it’s also inexpensive. Even if the calabsh breaks, it can be mended. However, that’s work for the lowest castes: how much can one earn mending calabashes?

Seller of calabashe.  Mali. The Maninka. Ye. V. Perehvalskaya. 2005.		The market day is over, the unsold calabashes are being packed to take them back home. Sibi, The Maninka. Perekhvalskaya E. 2005